West Virginia became a College World Series team for the first time in program history, completing a two-game Super Regional sweep of Cal Poly with a 17-1 win Saturday at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For the first time in West Virginia baseball history, the Mountaineers are headed to the Men’s College World Series.
Saturday afternoon at Kendrick Family Ballpark, West Virginia finished off a two-game sweep of Cal Poly in the NCAA Super Regionals with a 17-1 victory over the Mustangs. The win pushed the Mountaineers to 45-15 on the season and set a new program record for wins.
West Virginia wasted little time making its presence felt. The Mountaineers collected 19 hits, a new season high, including a season-high five home runs, and stole nine bases, the most since stealing 10 against Pitt in 2022.
Senior Ben Lumsden sparked the offense with two home runs and five RBI. Junior Armani Guzman hit his first home run of the season. drove in three runs. and stole his 38th base of the season to tie a WVU single-season record. Sophomore Gavin Kelly went 3-for-4 with a home run. while junior Tyrus Hall added his second home run of the weekend.
Cal Poly struck first with a 1-0 lead in the first inning. but after that. the game belonged to West Virginia. The Mountaineers scored seven runs in the second inning. turning a first-and-third double steal by sophomore Matt Ineich and senior Matthew Graveline into the opening they needed. Lumsden then hit a three-run home run to take the lead. Hall followed with a solo home run as West Virginia went back-to-back.
Graduate student Sean Smith kept the rally moving with an RBI single before Graveline knocked in a run with a groundout as the seven-run frame matched a season-high inning for West Virginia after the team’s opening weekend against Georgia Southern.
The scoring continued in the third as Guzman hit a two-run home run and senior Paul Schoenfeld added an RBI single. In the fourth, Lumsden hit another two-run home run to extend the lead to 12-1.
Kelly added another layer of damage in the fifth with his 17th home run, third most in a season by a Mountaineer and just two behind Jedd Gyorko and Mark Landers’ record of 19. In the sixth, Guzman hit an RBI single before Schoenfeld delivered a run-scoring groundout.
West Virginia capped its scoring in the seventh with another first-and-third double steal—this time executed by Ineich and Graveline.
There was still a brief pause for the crowd. A record-breaking crowd of 4,675 fans had to wait about an hour-and-a-half to celebrate due to rain in the eighth inning. When play resumed, graduate student Ian Korn threw a scoreless inning. Senior Ben McDougal then closed it out in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning, striking out the last batter.
Redshirt junior Maxx Yehl earned the win, pitching 5.0 innings with four strikeouts while allowing just the one run.
The Mountaineers will play on Friday, June 12, against Troy from Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. Game time is still to be determined.
Ticket information was also outlined for the 2026 Men’s College World Series. Due to extremely high ticket requests and limited available inventory in the WVU ticket allotment. West Virginia will be unable to fulfill requests for Mountaineer Athletic Club (MAC) members or WVU baseball season ticket holders below the $50. 000 MAC annual membership level. Those below the $50,000 level are strongly encouraged to purchase through the NCAA ticketing website.
MAC members at the $50. 000 membership level who have not already requested tickets can log in to their WVUGAME.com account to request tickets to the games. with fans able to request up to four (4) tickets. If a request is fulfilled. fans will be automatically charged for the first two games WVU plays; if the team advances. charges will be applied for each additional game. Tickets will only be valid for the games West Virginia plays, and no refunds or exchanges will be provided.
Requests will be allocated in priority order, matching the NCAA Morgantown Regional and Super Regional. The deadline to request tickets is Monday, June 8 at noon, and fans will be notified whether their request was fulfilled or denied by 5 p.m. on Monday.
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
West Virginia baseball Cal Poly NCAA Super Regionals College World Series Kendrick Family Ballpark Ben Lumsden Armani Guzman Gavin Kelly
17-1?? That’s like… disrespectful. Cal Poly should’ve just called it after 3.
I don’t even watch college baseball but West Virginia finally making it sounds huge. Super regional sweep sounds like they just bullied them the whole time.
Wait so the 17-1 was Saturday at Kendrick Family Ballpark, but isn’t Kendrick like… a high school? Idk maybe I’m thinking of something else. Either way 19 hits is crazy.
College World Series first time in program history, wow. But I’m confused because the article says Ben Lumsden did all this and then it glitches with “Guzman hit his first home run… drove in three runs.” like did he also steal bases? Also the double steal thing sounds made up, like who steals on a 1-0 lead that early.